Cheese Stuffed Buffalo Turkey Burgers

Hello Friday. I love you.

Am I too young to have a bucket list? It seems morbid, but I have a lot of dreams and I’m a visual person so to me its necessary. I’m 26 years old but I feel as a good portion of my life has passed. 1/3? 1/4? Who knows. I think no matter what age I am I will always still feel as if I’m “too young” to have written a list.

When I was 18 I honestly thought I’d be married by 22 years old with 2 children. (ridiculous) Good thing I wasn’t because a. I’d most likely be a poor single divorced mom and b. I would have never met a genuinely nice guy who knows how to communicate and have a two-way street relationship. Basically my point is, life passes you by and things you thought you would accomplish or dream of doing just don’t get done. So girls (and boys) – I’m making a bucket list. I’ll be adding it as a tab up top so I can cross things off once they are done.

The Bucket List

1. Visit Italy and speak Italian – I think its romantic!
2. Volunteer Somewhere for a Full Day Done
3. Get Married BEFORE I’m 30.
4. Skydive
5. Drive up the California Coast and stop at Pebble Beach, LA, San Diego etc
6. Enter a cooking/baking contest, and win of course
7. Have 3 children
8. Run a half marathon (Princess in Disney!)
9. Run a full marathon, somewhere other than where I live
10. Be my own boss
11. Camp in the Grand Canyons
12. Visit Australia
13. Stay in Fiji
14. Vacation in Bora Bora
15. Take my mom to Hawaii for her 50th birthday
16. Be a mentor to someone
17. See a sunrise and sunset in the same day Done
18. Teach kindergarten
19. Plan weddings
20. Take up Salsa, Ballroom or some other type of dancing
21. Swim with dolphins Done
22. Experience Brazil’s Carnival
23. Try the CSD (Crazy Sexy Diet) for 21 days
24. See a psychic
25. Paint a picture for my bedroom
26. Live on a sailboat for a week
27. Play Football
28. See the Redskins in a Superbowl
29. Watch my kids graduate college
30. Have my 15 minutes of fame.
31. Touch an iceberg
32. Bungee Jump Done
33. Grow and Eat my own vegetables
34. Spend thousands of dollars shopping in one day and not have anxiety about it. ( I wouldn’t mind if it was grocery shopping!)

I’m going to stop there. I want to be able to add things as I cross things off. That way it keeps it fun. If you don’t have a bucket list I personally recommend you create one. The whole point of a bucket list is to maximize every moment of our existence and live our life to the fullest. It should be a reminder of all the things we want to achieve in our time here, so that instead of frittering away our time in pointless activities, we are directing it more toward what really matters to us.

OK, enough seriousness. Yesterday the 5-year-old and I went on an adventure! Her cousin had sent her a paper robot named Olivia who was interested in checking out Annapolis (they are from Illinois) so we visited a bunch of places Downtown.

State House

Rode Bikes

Enjoyed Fro-Yo (the no sweets thing? not going so well)

Watched the boats

Ooooed and Awwwed at a sweets display

Relaxed our tired feet

While downtown I noticed they opened a Jimmy Johns! I’ve always heard great reviews so I’m excited to try it out soon.

I also noticed that CVS dedicated an entire shelf to me – How sweet.

I’ve been slacking on the Favorite Friday portion of this blog. During the week I ramble on about food (let’s be honest, that interests you WAY more than fitness and fashion) so on Friday’s I like to dedicate a teeny tiny section to them. Today? Fitness.

MY favorite Fitness Apps for the fancy iPhone (backdoor brag)

1. Google Goggles
Snap a picture of a food label on your phone and this app tells you everything you want (or maybe don’t want) to know about that product: Nutrition information, the company’s website, where it’s sold, and more.

2. Map My Fitness
A GPS for your runs, hikes, bike rides and other activities. No running buddy in your city? This application lets you share and compare stats (duration, distance, pace, speed, elevation, and calories burned) with friends around the world.

3. Tap & Track
This comprehensive app calculates exactly how many calories you should be eating each day, factoring in things like your job to determine how active you are. You enter what you’re eating and how much you’re exercising, and Tap & Track creates graphs that make it easy to see your progress, even if the scale doesn’t dip that day.

The first two are free. People love free things… So even if you hate it, feel free (no pun intended) to at least try it out! The second one is 2.99 or 3.99 – but worth every penny!

I think I enjoyed peanut butter in just about every single meal yesterday.

Breakfast:

1/2 0% chobani Blueberry Flavored & Bowl of Peanut Butter Puffins w/ Strawberries

By the way… The strawberries are monster sized. That is just one strawberry in that bowl of cereal!

Snack:

A Protein Disc… Seriously obsessed with these.

Note: There are only crumbs left

Lunch: Flax sandwich thin w/ Dark Chocolate PB and banana slices and Honey Nut Cream cheese squished into a delicious sweet sandwich

Dinner was peanut butter-less… I figured my jar(s) could use a break. However dinner was the best turkey burger I’ve ever made in my life. I love to make turkey burgers rather than regular hamburgers but sometimes they can get dry. These however are juicy, flavorful and make you feel like you’re having a cheat meal 🙂

I’m going to share the recipe with you since it only has 3 ingredients. Yes…just 3!

Cheese Stuffed Buffalo Turkey Burgers

Ingredients

• 1 lb of ground turkey (Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s)
• 1/3 cup Franks Buffalo Sauce
• 5 pieces of Muenster Cheese

Directions

• Place ground turkey in bowl
• Add 1/3 cup of Franks Buffalo Sauce to mixture
• Mix well
• Shape into pattys
• Break 1 piece of Muenster Cheese into 4 mini squares and place on top of each patty

• Mold the ground turkey around the cheese so it’s a stuffed burger
• Grill (look at the cheese oozing out!)

• Add a slice of Muenster Cheese to the top of each

I’ll probably never make a different type of burger again. I’ve made these 3 times in 3 weeks… They are that good! I gave the leftovers to my brother before I left for vacation and he ate all 3 in one sitting and texted me “Thanks for lunch – Please send Mom and/or Grandma your recipe immediately”. He doesn’t even like Muenster Cheese or ground turkey – I love tricking people!! muhahaha

We rounded these out with some butternut squash fries! I prefer these over sweet potato ones..

Yesterdays meals made me happy and satisfied 🙂

I also wanted to dedicate a piece of my Favorite Friday to you all! I am going to start a blogroll of my favorite blogs… If you would like to be added just leave me a comment with your blog name and headline. Ex: Fashion Fitness Foodie: Staying fit while eating good food in stilettos

Have a good weekend!

QUESTIONS: Do you have a bucket list? What is your favorite iPhone app? Do you want to be added to my blogroll? Leave your link!

3 days in 1 post

Hellllo out there. I have so many great things to tell you guys! Let’s start off with food… I have Thurs, Fri & Sat to catch you up on… I’ve had A LOT of awesome Vegan eats. My meals have are so much easier now, which is great because I would’ve quit by now if it was anything like day 1!

Thursday

Breakfast: Banana Berry Protein Smoothie (1 banana, 1 cup almond milk, frozen berries & Amazing Grass chocolate flavor)

Lunch: Whole Wheat Pasta w/ Crushed Tomatoes and grilled Vegetables

Dinner: Homemade Vegan Chili

Dessert: Vegan Peanut  Butter cups – Chocolate + Better n Peanut Butter  + Cinnamon Graham Crackers = LOVE

I have to share this recipe. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t give you a recipe that included chocolate and peanut butter? Let alone combined…

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups adapted from Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp Earth Balance butter
• 1/2 cup Better n Peanut Butter
• 2/3 cup cinnamon graham crackers crushed + more if desired for topping
• 2 tbsp Maple Syrup
• 1/2 cup Vegan Chocolate Chips
• 3 tbsp Unsweetened Almond Milk

Directions

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well.
• Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the mold cups.
• Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted.
• Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture.
• Top with more crushed graham crackers
• Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

I’m gonna pull a Rachel Ray and say Yumm-O (even though I make fun of her for saying that). Not only are these healthy, low in calories and easy to make but they are SO SO good. I even tricked one of my cousins into thinking it was a high calorie, unhealthy dessert 🙂

Friday

Breakfast: Van’s Whole Wheat Waffles w/ Protein “Cake Batter”

Protein “Cake Batter”

Ingredients

• 1 frozen banana
• 2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 packet of Vega Vanilla Protein Powder

Directions

• Blend together

Dessert for breakfast is becoming way too common… But I don’t mind. It’s healthy 🙂

Lunch: Leftover Vegan Chili

Dinner: Vegan Mushroom Pizza & A vegan chocolate chip cookie

The cookie monster must’ve gotten a hold of this before I could grab the camera 🙂 Btw, soy cheese – um, really? Why does every pizza place not offer this as an option? Try it just once, for me! Pleassseee.

Saturday

Breakfast: Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Swirl Pancakes w/ Apple Topping (longest name?)

I wanted to make something that my boyfriend and I could eat together so I had to think of something that looked like a man’s meal! He had seconds so I’m pretty positive I succeeded.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Swirl Pancakes w/ Apple Topping

Ingredients:

Pancake Batter

• 3/4 cup Whole Wheat flour
• 1/2 cup Whole Wheat pastry flour
• 2 tablespoons stevia
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon Ener-G mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Cinnamon-Apple Swirl Batter:

• 2 tablespoons prepared batter (above)
• 2 tablespoons natural apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Apple “Syrup” Topping

 

• 1 chopped granny smith apple
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

• In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

• Add almond (or soy) milk and egg replacer mixture and stir just until flour is moistened. (For thicker pancakes, use only 1 cup milk.) Let the batter rest for 5 minutes while the skillet heats.

• While the batter is resting, combine all of the “swirl” ingredients, using 2 tablespoons of the prepared batter.
• Heat a non-stick griddle or skillet (sprayed lightly with non-stick spray) over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles. Pour batter by scant 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle. Immediately drizzle the cinnamon-apple batter over the top of each pancake in a swirl pattern. Cook until tops are bubbly and bubbles burst; edges will look dry. With a pancake turner, turn and cook until undersides are golden. Place on a warm platter; keep warm.

• Repeat until all batter is used, brushing griddle lightly with olive oil, if necessary, to prevent sticking.

• Cook apple topping.

• Melt butter in saucepan.
• Add brown sugar, apples and cinnamon and cook until apples are tender and syrup has formed.
• Pour over pancakes.

These were delightful and kept us full for hours… Well me, longer than him. But I wasn’t hungry until dinner! (I did have a snack at the show – 2 clementines and 100 calorie pack of almonds)

We went out to dinner to celebrate Valentines Day since we wont actually see each other on Monday. My boyfriend IS the best because he was craving lamb chops and we had reservations at Capital Grille but they didn’t have ONE Vegan option so he switched it to an Organic restaurant nearby just for me. Such a good guy 🙂 The restaurant was called Dogwood. If you live in Maryland this is definitely a place to check out. Everything was so fresh, the service was great and the atmosphere was comfy-cozy yet funky. I will 100% be a repeat offender.

FYI – I only had my iPhone for pictures so they didn’t come out that great…

Appetizer: Beet & Carrot Soup w/ a slice of Fresh Bread

Dinner: Forbidden Rice & Roasted Butternut Squash Curry with zucchini and yellow squash, organic black rice, mild curried coconut sauce with Vann’s spices, golden currants and toasted almonds

I am literally speechless over a veggie dish! These flavors were spicy, nutty and flavorful. I would love to make this one night…and eat it for days and days.

Unfortunately they didn’t offer any Vegan desserts 😦 But my trusty iPhone found a place right around the corner that did!

Thank you, Sweet Sin for fulfilling my craving. I ordered a chocolate ganache raspberry cupcake.

I die.

On our way out there was something else staring me in the eye.

I couldn’t eat a cupcake and not a cookie. That’s prejudiced and I wont stand for that. So i ordered one for the car ride home. Hey, it was 40 minutes you never know when a craving will strike! I ate it 5 minutes into the drive. This cookie was so fluffy. I had only planned to eat half…Half turned into 3/4’s which turned into the whole thing. Oh well, life goes on. The cupcake was also lovely. Extremely decadent is how I would describe it.

Are you hungry after reading all of that? Because I am!

Friday night my boyfriend arrived and I FINALLY got to give him his birthday present… 5 days in Key West in less than a month!!! I better get serious about my workouts!

Can.Not.Wait. Sun.Beach.Drinks w/ Umbrellas. Need I say more?

On Saturday he got me tickets to the Disney Princess on Ice show in Baltimore. I LOVE princesses and claim to be am one so I was overly excited. There was a couple in the elevator with us who were probably in their 80’s going to see the show too and that made me think “That will absolutely be us one day”. Once a princess, always a princess.

I was like a little kid in a candy shop…or a little girl at a Disney Princess show. After the show was over we waited in line with the 6 year olds other girls and he bought me a light up tiara.

Really, does it get any better than this? Pancakes for breakfast, Disney on Ice, a Princess tiara, amazing vegan dinner, even better 2 vegan desserts? I think not. If you think of something please, feel free to let me know.

I highly doubt Adam had as much fun as I did but he was a great sport.

Thanks babe 🙂 Love you lots!

We also watched The Social Network & Easy A. Neither were academy award winners but they were both entertaining and I liked learning the background story about how Facebook begun.

On Friday night we also discovered Tasti D-lite was FINALLY open. I have been waiting for this for about a year…No joke. Please tell me you have one of these near you? If not maybe I should do a giveaway with some because I know they ship them ( I may or may not have had some shipped to me from Florida once). I discovered this ice cream with one of my best friends last May. 50 calories, 2 grams of fat, 2 grams of sugar, over 100 flavors and 50 toppings.  You can guarantee I will be there at least 3x next week.

They switch flavors out daily so I have already programmed their number to my speed dial. Even though I couldn’t order anything because of Vegan week I went in and told the owner he’d be seeing a lot more of me and expressed my excitement. I’m not sure if he was flattered or wanted to request a restraining order.

Ah, okay. I’m done obsessing.

Also some other great news is I won the shoes from Shanna’s giveaway!! Charles David wedges are on their way to my house and I am so thankful and happy 🙂 Thanks so much again. I’ll post a picture of me in them when I get them but here is a sneak peek in the meantime.

Sorry I didn’t have time to post on Favorite Friday… I’ll make up for it next week! I hope everyone is having a great weekend. This post was really long so hopefully you didn’t get too bored!

QUESTIONS: Have you ever had a vegan dessert? What are you doing for Valentines Day?

Day 16: Dream house

I dream big… I want a lot of children, a huge kitchen where I have so much room I could ice skate if I wanted to, and someone to clean up after me because I am sort of messy when I cook. I’d also like an amazing view of the water and pottery barn-esque designed rooms. It will be colorful yet classy. Is that too much to ask?

Day 17: Something you’re looking forward to

Key West vacation… I’m so done with the snow, ice and numbing winds. Goodbye winter coat. Hello bikini.

ANOTHER great giveaway by Angie! Go enter 🙂 All of these giveaways are making me want to have another….